Guest Author - Jessica Carson

Fall can be a busy time in your garden, almost as busy as Springtime. If you give your garden adequate care as the weather starts to turn cool you'll be rewarded with beautiful Autumn and Winter blooms and a bountiful garden next year.

Finishing up the Summer Garden
1. Ripen tomatoes. Remove the lower leaves from your tomato plants to allow more sun to the ripening fruit. If the plants are already dying back, remove the fruit and set it indoors on a sunny window sill to finish ripening, or make pickled tomatoes or fried green tomatoes with them. Yum!

2. Trim back your blooming plants for one last burst of bloom. Many flowers and bushes can be coaxed into a good Fall display with a little pruning and low nitrogen fertilizer.

3. Remove diseased leaves as they fall. Remove anything with rust, black spot, mildew or other diseases so the fungus won't spread to your plants next year. If you have a compost bin, be sure to only put healthy trimmings and clippings there.

4. Harvest and dry your herbs.

5. Encourage rose hips. If you want to harvest rose hips from your garden, leave some spent flowers now on the rose bushes. Not too many, though, as developing rose hips takes energy away from the plant.

6. Harvest root crops. Dig your potatoes, onions and garlic as the tops die back.

7. Clean out spent containers. If you are through with a pot for the season, remove the soil. Rinse the pot well and scrub with a good brush. Treat the pot inside and out with a 10% bleach solution to kill any disease. If your plants were very healthy with no disease (lucky you!) you can recycle the potting soil by mixing it with compost, a little sand, vermiculite and perlite. After a few disappointing experiences, however, I usually don't take the chance and start over with fresh soil.


Starting a Fall/Winter Garden
1. Plant seeds. If you have a greenhouse or live in a warmer climate, sew your seeds for lettuce, spinach, herbs, radish, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, beets, carrots, cabbage, turnip and other cool-weather crops. Be sure to use fast-maturing varieties. Planted in mid-to-late August you should be able to get a good harvest before first frost in cooler climates, also. Consider building or buying a small greenhouse for growing container plants through the winter and getting a jump start on seedlings in the Spring.

2. Plant Fall/Winter flowers in your containers: pansies, viola, petunia, primrose, chrysanthemums, calendula, larkspur, aster, lobelia, Iceland poppies and snapdragon. Hanging baskets and other containers of these flowers look very pretty and will give you beautiful color through the winter if kept in a protected area.


Preparing for Winter
1. Feed. Fertilize your trees, shrubs, hardy perennials like azalea and camellia with a dormant fertilizer. Be sure it is low in nitrogen, you don't want to promote heavy growth this late in the season. A 2-10-10 fertilizer will get your azaleas and camellias to start forming bloom buds for your Spring flowers.

2. Prune. Remove spent annuals and cut back spent perennials and biennials.

3. Lift tender bulbs. If you live in a cold winter climate lift and store your tender bulbs like tuberous begonias and gladiolus or move the pots to an area protected from freezing. If you dig them, dust with fungicide and store in a dry, dark location.

4. Lift other bulbs after first freeze. Summer blooming bulbs, like dahlias and lilies, will still have plenty of foliage until after the first freeze. Once the foliage has died back move the pots to a protected location or dig the bulbs as above for safe keeping.

5. Mulch. If you have heavy freezing winters prepare for mulching your garden when the first frosts hit. A four to six inch mulch of straw can save many of your plants for next year, or prepare to bring your plants indoors to a protected area.


Prepare for next Spring
1. Plant Spring bulbs. Crocus, daffodil, freesia, sparaxis, tulip and other hardy bulbs can be planted now for your early Spring blooming. Plant Iris and peonies for next year while the weather is still warm enough for them to become established.

2. Plant trees and roses. As the weather turns cold now is the time to plant or transplant your trees and shrubs, or wait until early Spring.

3. Divide perennials. Agapanthus, Iris, Calla Lily, Canna Lily, Shasta Daisy and similar plants should be dug and divided in early September, before the weather turns cold. Let Bird of Paradise remain crowded, however; they will better survive the winter and bloom better next year.

4. Fertilize naturalized bulbs. Give your year-old or older bulbs a light feeding of bulb fertilizer or well-rotted manure or compost.

5. Save seeds for next Spring. As you clean up your spent flowers and vines save the dried seeds. Be sure to label them so you know what you are planting next Spring. Or you can simply plant them as you pull the plants, lightly scraping them into the soil.

6. Use dormant sprays. If your trees or hardy perennials suffered from leaf curl or insect infestations, prepare to spray them with a dormant spray once they loose their leaves.

Here is a wonderful small conposter for your patio or deck:
Outdoor Decor - Envirocycle Compost Tumbler - Green

These mini-greenhouses are perfect for getting your container garden through the winter and for starting your Spring plantings:
Juliana Mini Greenhouses